Maria Larionoff
Violin
Concertmaster, Seattle Symphony
"An outstanding talent intoxicating in its brilliance" raved the San Francisco Chronicle at Ms. Larionoff's solo debut. Since then, she has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and the Orquestra Sinfonica with Carlos Chavez in Mexico City, the University of Washington Orchestra, the Yakima Symphony, the Port Angeles Symphony and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.
A Loomis Scholarship Award winner at the prestigious Juilliard School, Ms. Larionoff was a student of Dorothy DeLay, and, upon graduating, was invited by the esteemed Maestro Carlo Maria Giulini to join the violin section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ms. Larionoff serves as Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, where she has been featured as a soloist on numerous occasions. Her unusual versatility as a violist as well as a violinist has led to invitations at many chamber music festivals, including the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music Northwest, The International Music Festival, the Marrowstone Festival and the Mostly Mozart Festival.
Ms. Larionoff has collaborated in chamber music concerts with many distinguished artists including Emanuel Ax, Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, Steven Staryk, Dmitri Sitkovetsky, Glenn Dicterow and William Preucil. She has worked with some of the world's leading conductors, among them Sir Simon Rattle, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Andre Previn, Kurt Sanderling and Erich Leinsdorf.
Ms. Larionoff has served on the faculty of the University of Washington, and maintains a busy private teaching studio in addition to her performing schedule. Her CD of the Barber concerto won praise from renowned critic Byron Belt of the Newhouse News: "Miss Larionoff's solo performance matches the recently deservedly acclaimed Sony Classical recording by Hilary Hahn, with Hugh Wolff and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra."
In 2001 Ms. Larionoff and her husband Barry Lieberman founded the critically acclaimed American String Project, a conductorless string orchestra made up of Concertmasters and soloists from around the world. The group performs annually in May at Benaroya Hall .
Ms. Larionoff currently plays on a 1775 Guadagnini violin (the "ex-Lorand") loaned to her by the family of Dr. Benum W. Fox of Chicago.
