Carol Rodland

Acclaimed for her “larger than life, sweetly in tune, infinitely variegated”, and “delicious” playing, Carol Rodland enjoys a multi-faceted international career as a concert and recording artist and teacher. First prize winner of the Washington International Competition and the Universal Editions Prize winner of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, she made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager and her Carnegie Hall recital debut as a winner of the Artists International Auditions.

Ms. Rodland’s performance calendar includes regular collaborations with her sister, organist Catherine Rodland as the Rodland Duo as well as with pianists Marcantonio Barone and Tatevik Mokatsian, and cellist Scott Kluksdahl.  As a chamber musician, she performs at music festivals and on chamber series throughout the world. Appearances have included concerts with the Boston Chamber Music Society, the Portland Chamber Music Festival, the Craftsbury Chamber Players, the Central Chamber Music Series, the Musikfestpiele Saar, the Schwetzinger Festspiele, and as a guest violist with the Henschel Quartett, the Ying Quartett, the Colorado Quartet, and the Cassatt Quartet.

A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Ms. Rodland has commissioned, premiered, and recorded new works by Kenji Bunch, Dan Coleman, Adolphus Hailstork, David Liptak, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Gable, and Augusta Read Thomas. Her recordings for Crystal Records and Neuma Records have been critically acclaimed and are also available on Apple Music (Crystal Records) and Spotify (Neuma).

A dedicated and much sought-after teacher, Ms. Rodland is Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the Juilliard School. She is also an artist-faculty member at the Perlman Music Program, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, Valdres Sommersymfoni, and the Karen Tuttle Coordination Workshop. Previous positions have included professorships at the Eastman School of Music, where she was also Co-Chair of the String Department, at New England Conservatory, where she was recognized in 2005 with the “Louis and Adrienne Krasner Award for Excellence in Teaching”, at Berlin’s “Hanns Eisler” Hochschule, and at Arizona State University. Recent guest teaching residencies have included master classes in the United Kingdom at the Royal College of Music in London, in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Saarbrücken and at the Universität der Kunste in Berlin, in Norway at the Valdres Sommersymfoni, in Tel Aviv Israel with the Perlman Music Program, and in the United States at San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Rice University’s Shepherd School, Boston Conservatory, New England Conservatory ,Indiana University, University of Michigan, and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She has also served as a jury member, master class clinician, and featured recitalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and Workshop at the Isle of Man, United Kingdom and at the Primrose International Viola Competition and Festival in the United States. In 2024, she will join the jury of the Max Rostal Competition in Berlin.

Ms. Rodland is the founder of “If Music Be the Food…”, a benefit concert series created in 2009 to increase awareness and support for the hungry in the local community through the sharing of great music. Teaching music students about the importance of utilizing their art for service in their communities is also part of the series’ mission. “If Music Be the Food…” is a fully volunteer endeavor; all of the musicians donate their services, the venues donate the performance spaces, and audience members are encouraged to bring food or cash donations for the local food bank to the concerts. “If Music Be the Food…” has inspired other prominent musicians to implement initiatives based on this concept in their own communities.

Ms. Rodland holds Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied on full scholarship with Karen Tuttle and was the winner of the Juilliard Concerto Competition and the Lillian Fuchs Prize. She also received an Aufbaustudium Diplom awarded with distinction from the Musikhochschule Freiburg, Germany, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar and Beebe Fund Grantee with Kim Kashkashian. She had the unique privilege of serving as teaching assistant to both of her mentors. She plays on a viola made by Vincenzo Panormo in 1791 and a bow made by Benoit Rolland in 2010.