Praised by “USA Today” for her “richness of tone and impeccable articulation and for the warmth and subtlety of her phrasing”, violist Rita Porfiris has performed in major concert halls across the globe as a chamber musician, orchestral musician, and soloist. Currently Associate Professor of Viola and Chair of Chamber Music at The Hartt School, she has also been on faculty at New York University, University of Houston Moores’ School of Music, Florida International University, and the Harlem School for the Arts in New York. She has received Austria’s Prix Mercure, was a prize winner in the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the Primrose International Viola Competition, and a laureate of the Paolo Borciani International Quartet Competition as a member of the Plymouth String Quartet. Ms. Porfiris is a member of the Miller-Porfiris Duo with which she has released 4 CDs which have received critical acclaim. In her previous career as an orchestral musician, 15 years of which were spent with the Houston Symphony, she worked under some of the most recognized conductors of the 20-21 Centuries: Leonard Bernstein, Sergiu Celibidache, Kurt Masur, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Christoph Eschenbach. Ms. Porfiris received her BM and MM in Viola Performance from The Juilliard School, studying with William Lincer. Other teachers and mentors included Paul Doktor, Norbert Brainin, and Harvey Shapiro.
David Froom was born in California in 1951. His music has been performed extensively throughout the United States by major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, including, among many others, the Louisville, Seattle, Utah, and Chesapeake Symphony Orchestras, The United States Marine and Navy Bands, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Twentieth Century Consort, the New York New Music Ensemble, violinist Curtis Macomber, and saxophonist Kenneth Tse; he also has had performances in England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Holland, Cyprus, China, and Australia. His music is available on CD on the Bridge, New Dimensions, Delos, Arabesque, Capriccio, Centaur, Sonora, Crystal, Opus 3, and Altissimmo labels. His music is published by American Composers Alliance.
Among the many organizations that have bestowed honors on him are the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Academy Award, Ives Scholarship), the Guggenheim, Fromm, Koussevitzky, and Barlow Foundations, the Kennedy Center (first prize in the Friedheim Awards), the National Endowment for the Arts, The Music Teachers National Association (MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer for 2006), and the state of Maryland (five Individual Artist Awards). His biography is included in Groves. He had a Fulbright grant for study at Cambridge University, and fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Wellesley Composers Conference, and the MacDowell Colony. He has taught at the University of Utah, the Peabody Conservatory, and, since 1989, St. Mary's College of Maryland, where he is professor and chair of the music department. Mr. Froom was educated at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and Columbia University. His main composition teachers were Chou Wen-chung, Mario Davidovsky, Alexander Goehr, and William Kraft.
Shades of Red - David Froom
Recorded at home in Connecticut, June 2020
Rita Porfiris, viola
Mastered by Bradley Sayles.
Property of Shelter Recording Project, American Composers Alliance
