Matitiahu Braun - Voices of Time: Works for Unaccompanied Violin and Viola by J.S. Bach, Biber, Prokofiev, Sung and Varga (2010)

Matitiahu Braun began his study of the violin in 1946, at age six, in his native Jerusalem. He gave his first recital six months later, performing a Vivaldi concerto. He graduated from the Israel Academy of Music where he studied with Ödön Partos, a composer and performer who began as a violinist and became a violist. It was Partos’s remarkable deep tone on the viola that has ever since inspired Braun. Early in his own career, after his 1977 Town Hall recital playing on both instruments, a New York Times critic called Braun a “Master of Strings.”

Matitiahu Braun came to America in 1962 to study violin at the Juilliard School with Joseph Fuchs. He received his Artist and Post-graduate diplomas from the Juilliard and was the recipient of the prestigious Naumburg Prize. After stints with the Musica Aeterna Orchestra and Denver Symphony, he joined the New York Philharmonic, a position he held from 1969 until 2006. He also served as Principal and Solo Violist with the Dallas Symphony in the late 1970s. Mr. Braun’s busy career includes recitals, chamber music, and appearances with orchestras throughout the United States and in Finland, Japan, and Israel. Likewise, he has taught, coached, and conducted master classes in hopes of inspiring young talent throughout the world to follow his approach and understanding. Understanding for Matitiahu Braun comes from a never-ending exploration of each musical work’s spiritual, emotional, and intellectual meaning.

Currently a resident of Florida, Matitiahu Braun teaches at Rollins College in Winter Park and has private students in both violin and viola. Since settling in the Orlando area in 2006, he has presented faculty recitals at Rollins and at other venues, performing on both violin and viola. He recently appeared in New York City in recital and chamber music concerts at Weill Hall and Lincoln Center, in Iowa and Wisconsin, and at the Roycroft Chamber Music Festival in East Aurora and Buffalo, New York, and at the International Grieg Festival in early 2009. He appeared as soloist with the COSM Orchestra in New York City in May 2009 performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto.