Melia Watras

Melia Watras has been hailed by Gramophone as “an artist of commanding and poetic personality” and by The Strad as “staggeringly virtuosic.” As a violist/composer/collaborative artist, she has sustained a distinguished career as a creator and facilitator of new music and art.

Watras’s much-lauded work as a recording artist spans nearly three decades. Her albums have been described as “an exquisite world in which beauty and dreams flirt with sorrow” (The WholeNote), “a rare balance of emotional strength and technical delicacy” (The American Record Guide), “a beautiful celebration of 21st century viola music” (The Strad), “astounding and both challenging and addictive to listen to” (Strings), and “pure, poignant, powerful in their immediacy” (Berlin-based music magazine 15 Questions). In addition to her 10 solo albums, Watras appears on 13 others as violist of the acclaimed Corigliano Quartet.

Her compositions have been performed throughout the US and in Europe, broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and can be found on the albums The almond tree duos; Kinetic; Partita Party; Play/Write; String Masks; 3 Songs for Bellows, Buttons and Keys; Firefly Songs; Schumann Resonances and 26.

Watras is currently Professor of Viola at the University of Washington, where she holds the Ruth Sutton Waters Endowed Professorship and for 13 years served as Chair of Strings. In 2024, the American Viola Society presented Watras with the Maurice W. Riley Award, for her distinguished contributions to the viola as a performer, composer, teacher and leader. She has penned articles for the Journal of the American Viola Society, The Strad (online), Strings and the Juilliard Journal. Please visit www.meliawatras.com for more info.