Elbert L. Carpenter Chair

American violinist Erin Keefe, hailed as “an impressive violin soloist” by The New York Times, has established a reputation as a compelling artist who combines exhilarating temperament and fierce integrity. The many major awards she has won include the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Keefe became concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2011. At Sommerfest 2012 she will make her concerto solo debut with the Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto; in April 2013 she will return to the solo spotlight, playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.

A well-known soloist and chamber musician, Keefe won the 2009 Pro Musicis International Award and has been awarded Grand Prize in the Valsesia Musica International Violin Competition (Italy, 2009), the Torun International Violin Competition (Poland, 2007), the Schadt Competition (2006) and the Corpus Christi International String Competition (2004). She was the Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai (Japan) and Gyeongnam (Korea) International Violin Competitions, resulting in performances and re-engagements in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Keefe has appeared as soloist in recent seasons with orchestras such as the New York City Ballet, New Mexico Symphony, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Sendai Philharmonic and the Gottingen Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has given recitals throughout the United States, Austria, Germany, Korea, Poland, Japan and Denmark, most recently making her Weill Hall recital debut in 2010.

Among the leading chamber musicians of her generation, Keefe joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as an Artist during the 2010-2011 season; previously, from 2006 to 2009, she had been a member of the Chamber Music Society Two program. She has been featured on Live from Lincoln Center three times with the Society, performing works by Brahms, Schoenberg, Bach and Corelli. She has also performed regularly with both the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and Boston Chamber Music Society.

Keefe has collaborated with many of today’s leading artists, including the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andrés Díaz, Edgar Meyer, Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, David Shifrin, David Soyer, Colin Carr, Leon Fleisher and William Preucil. She also performed on a program with Michael Tilson Thomas premiering his own chamber music at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.

Her discography includes Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet with Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry and Jennifer Welch-Babidge for Robert Craft and the Naxos label; recordings of Dvořák’s Terzetto and Piano Quartet in E-flat with David Finckel and Wu Han for the CMS Studio Recordings label; and live performances of the Bartók Contrasts, Dvořák Piano Quintet, Mozart E-flat Piano Quartet, Respighi’s Il Tramonto and Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman, Ani Kavafian and Ewa Podlés. Keefe’s first solo CD, released in January 2010, includes works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Ravel, Sibelius, Lutoslawski and Hindemith, and was recorded with pianist Anna Polonsky.

Keefe’s festival appearances have included Marlboro Music, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia, Bravo! Vail Valley, and the Seattle, OK Mozart, Mimir, Music in the Vineyards and Bridgehampton chamber music festivals. 

A native of Northampton, Massachusetts, Keefe earned a master of music degree from the Juilliard School and a bachelor of music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, Brian Lewis and Teri Einfeldt. She lives in St. Paul with her husband, cellist Andrey Tchekmazov.