DAVID McCARROLL

violin

Next was Schumann’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D minor, WoO 23, known to but a few intimates until it was given its world première in Berlin in 1937.

Played last evening, the work is a thing of beauty, and the orchestra gave an outstanding performance, with concertmaster David McCarroll as the violin soloist.

The gifted man’s playing is often discernable in the various concerts given through the course of the last two seasons, and last evening was a fascinating display of Mr. McCarroll’s individual virtuosity.

Through the first movement, composed in sonata form, the second, somewhat of an intermezzo, and the more than lively third, Mr. McCarroll gave a fine display of his virtuosity and skilled ability to make his instrument sing, and he was recalled 5-6 times by a powerfully sincere ovation. He, the conductor and orchestra are to be commended for one of their very best performances. The large bouquet he received McCarroll graciously handed to Anne Martindale Williams, the principal cellist.

onStage Pittsburgh
Schumann Concerto 10/2023

“Superlative musicianship and beautiful sound”

— Washington Post

“McCarroll’s [Brahms concerto] was probing in its depth of expression yet elegantly sung out.”

— San Francisco Classical Voice

“A keen blend of energy and elegance.”

— Cleveland Plain Dealer

“David McCarrol is a sound aesthete; his tone is remarkably supple and of an effortless perfection…”

— Rhein-Neckar Zeitung

“What a performance! The foursome — violinists David McCarroll and Joel Link, violist Hélène Clément, and cellist Marcy Rosen — played with near-flawless technique, rapport, and pacing. Just as important, there was a gripping sense of drama throughout the performance that almost came unhinged during the Große Fuge. This was, quite simply, one of the most exciting Beethoven performances I can remember hearing.” (Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130 with Große Fuge at the Marlboro Music Festival)

— Boston Globe

“McCarroll displayed an ingenious range of dynamics, masterful lyricism, and faultless technique.”

(Beethoven violin concerto)

— San Francisco Classical Voice

“A great talent who plays with an impressive depth of feeling.”

— IndieLondon

“Mr. McCarroll plays with elegance and great depth, as well as a flawless technique that allows him to express what he feels in the music from 1806.” (Beethoven violin concerto)

— Classical Sonoma

David McCarroll, the newly appointed Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, has been described byMusik Heuteas “a violinist of mature musicality and deep understanding of his repertoire whose playing is distinguished by clarity of form and line.”

Winner of the 2012 European Young Concert Artists Auditions, Davidmade his concerto debut with the London Mozart Players in 2002 and has since appeared as soloist with many orchestras including the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich (Simone Young, Grafenegg), Hong Kong Sinfonietta (Christoph Poppen), Santa Rosa Symphony, and Philharmonie Zuidnederland. He regularly performs in major concert halls such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw, Wigmore Hall , Library of Congress, Kennedy Center, 92nd Street Y, and Carnegie Hall, while his performances have been broadcast on many radio stations including WGBH Boston, WQXR New York, National Public Radio, Ö1, BR-Klassik and the BBC.

Also an active chamber musician, he served from 2015 to 2022 as the violinist of the renowned Vienna Piano Trio with whom he toured and recorded extensively. The Trio’s recording of the complete Brahms piano trios was awarded the 2017 Echo Klassik prize and in 2020 the Trio’s Beethoven recording won the Opus Klassik award.

In addition, David has performed in many chamber ensembles with musicians including Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode, Miriam Fried, Pamela Frank, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Marcy Rosen, Peter Wiley, Charles Neidich, Jörg Widmann, and Radovan Vlatkovic, while he is a regular guest at festivals, such as Marlboro, the Schubertiade, Heidelberger Frühling, Grafenegg, Lucerne Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Siete Lagos (Argentina), ChamberFest Cleveland, Portland Chamber Music Festival, and with the Israeli Chamber Project. Recent performances have included Stravinsky’s violin concerto at the Konzerthaus Berlin, touring with Musicians from Marlboro, and performances of György Kurtág’s “Kafka Fragments” for violin and soprano.

Also in demand as a teacher, David taught a full violin class for one year at Salzburg's Mozarteum University, and has taught violin and chamber music at Ravinia's Steans Institute, at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music, and at the San Francisco Conservatory.

David was born in Santa Rosa, California in 1986 and began studying the violin with Helen Payne Sloat at the age of 4. At 8, he attended the Crowden School of Music in Berkeley studying with Anne Crowden. When David was 13, he received an invitation to join an international group of 60 young music students at the Yehudi Menuhin School outside London where he studied for five years with Simon Fischer. David continued his studies with Donald Weilerstein and Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston receiving a Master’s degree, and with Antje Weithaas in the Konzertexamen (Artist Diploma) program at the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin.

In addition to his pursuit of music, David maintains an active interest in social concerns, including the needs of those impacted by the AIDS pandemic; he is currently working on projects of the Starcross Community to help AIDS orphans in Africa. David has performed in programs encouraging world peace promoted by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and has given benefit concerts for Doctors Without Borders. With other members of his family, David has worked to get strings to young music students in Cuba where such items are very difficult to obtain.

David plays a 1761 violin made by A&J Gagliano.