Vicki Powell

Praised by the New York Times for her “probing introspection”, and by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a star” with “a voluptuous tone,” violist Vicki Powell has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and has been a featured artist at the Verbier, Ravinia, Caramoor, Moritzburg, and Marlboro Music Festivals.

She has received a Gold Award in Music from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Other awards include third prize and the Sonata Prize at the 2011 Primrose International Viola Competition, as well as first prizes in the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, the Johansen International Competition, and the Aspen Low Strings Competition.

An avid chamber musician, Powell performs throughout Europe with the Boccherini String Trio (www.boccherinitrio.com). She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, musicians from the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Curtis on Tour and performs with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players in New York City. Recent highlights include performances at the Rheingau Music Festival, Zurich Tonhalle, and Konzerthaus Berlin, as well as with Christian Tetzlaff and Steven Isserlis at Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World. She has also previously collaborated with such reknowned artists as Mitsuko Uchida, Nobuko Imai, Arnold Steinhardt, Pamela Frank, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley.

Since 2018 Powell has been principal viola of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been invited to play as guest principal of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Camerata Bern, among others.

In addition to her pursuits as a violist, Powell is passionate about using music to engage communities from diverse backgrounds, to strengthen social ties and to raise awareness for humanitarian efforts across the world. As director of the Verbier Festival Academy’s Reaching Out program, she helped enable musicians to harness and broaden their outreach, business, networking, and leadership skills to be innovative and active participants within their own communities. Powell has also collaborated with the Medair organization (relief.medair.org), which helps people suffering in remote and devastated communities around the world to survive crisis, recover with dignity, and develop skills to build a better future.

Powell began her musical studies in Madison, Wisconsin, with Eugene Purdue and Sally Chisholm. She is a graduate of the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Juilliard School, and Curtis Institute of Music and has studied with Máté Szücs, Misha Amory, and Roberto Diaz. She plays a copy of the Primrose Guarneri by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.