Maiya Papach, viola
Maiya Papach is the principal violist of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. A member of the orchestra since 2008, she has performed as a soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with concertmaster Steven Copes, and in John Woolrich’s Ulysses Awakes, and has solo directed Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae. Ms. Papach is also a founding member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), with which she has performed frequently at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and dozens of experimental venues. An avid chamber musician, she has performed at Prussia Cove (UK), the Seattle Chamber Music Society, La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival, Strings Music Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Music in the Vineyards, and the Marlboro Music Festival. She is also a member of Accordo, a Twin Cities-based chamber ensemble. Ms. Papach is a 2013 recipient of the McKnight Fellowship for Musicians administered by the MacPhail Center for Music. Through this fellowship and in collaboration with ICE, she co-commissioned a viola concerto by Anthony Cheung, performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival to critical acclaim by the New York Times. She is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School and performs on a 19th-century Turinese viola by Annibale Fagnola. Maiya Papach resides in Saint Paul with her wife, two young children, and a dozen paws.