Melia Watras is an American violist, composer and professor of viola. She is a soloist, chamber musician and recording artist, who has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous new compositions, and appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall. Her compositions have been performed in the United States and Europe. Educated at Indiana University and the Juilliard School, Watras has been on the faculty of the University of Washington in Seattle since the fall of 2004, where she is Chair of Strings.
Education
Watras attended Indiana University, where she studied with Abraham Skernick and Atar Arad, earning bachelor's and master's degrees and the prestigious Performer's Certificate. While at Indiana, she served as Arad's teaching assistant. She studied chamber music at the Juilliard School, while also teaching as an assistant to the Juilliard String Quartet.
Career
Performing and recording artist
As a recording artist, Watras has garnered considerable attention and praise from the media. Her solo CDs have been recognized by publications such as Gramophone (which hailed her as “an artist of commanding and poetic personality”), The Strad, ("staggeringly virtuosic") and Strings (“Watras is a young player in possession of stunning virtuosic talent and deserving of the growing acclaim”). She has been heard on numerous radio programs, including NPR's All Things Considered and Performance Today, and a live performance for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation.
Composers that have written works especially for Watras include: Alessandra Barrett, Charles Corey, Brent Michael Davids, Joël-François Durand, Orlando Jacinta García, Richard Karpen, Garth Knox, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Shih-Wei Lo, Sandesh Nagaraj, Juan Pampin, Joshua Parmenter, Shulamit Ran, Jonathan Rodriquez Grijalva, Kathryn Sullivan, Heinrich Taube, Breana Tavaglione, Diane Thome, Cuong Vu, Andrew Waggoner, Anna Weesner, Frances White and Wei Yang. As a soloist and chamber musician, Watras has given world premieres of works by Atar Arad, Charles Corey, John Corigliano, Brent Michael Davids, Tina Davidson, Alexander De Varon, Joël-François Durand, Orlando Jacinta García, Jesse Jones, Richard Karpen, Garth Knox, Michael Jinsoo Lim, Shih-Wei Lo, Patrick Long, Eric Maestri, Anthony Moore, Jeffrey Mumford, Sandesh Nagaraj, Ichiro Nodaira, Juan Pampin, Joshua Parmenter, Robert Pound, Shulamit Ran, Jonathan Rodgriguez Grijalva, Adam Silverman, Kathryn Sullivan, Sir John Taverner, Heinrich Taube, Breana Tavaglione, Diane Thome, Dan Visconti, Cuong Vu, Andrew Waggoner, Melia Watras, Anna Weesner, Frances White, Theodore Wiprud, Tamar Witkin, Wei Yang and Mischa Zupko.
Watras is violist of the Seattle-based ensemble, Frequency, a group she has composed for and recorded with on Planet M Records. For twenty years, Watras concertized worldwide and recorded extensively as violist of the renowned Corigliano Quartet, which she co-founded. The ensemble's album on the Naxos label was honored as one of the Ten Best Classical Recordings of the Year by The New Yorker. Other chamber music explorations include improvising in concert with jazz innovators Cuong Vu and Ted Poor. She and Vu premiered and recorded a work of his for viola and trumpet.
Composer
Watras's compositions have been performed in New York City, Chicago, Seattle, Bloomington (IN), Mammoth Lakes (CA), Columbus (GA), Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, and Wales. She has been commissioned by Avalon String Quartet, the American Viola Society, Mark Fewer (violin), Rachel Lee Priday (violin), Michael Jinsoo Lim (violin), Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir (cello), Cristina Valdés (piano), Rose Wollman (viola), and has had works performed by artists such as Atar Arad (viola), Galia Arad (voice), Winston Choi (piano), Catherine Connors (voice), Charles Corey (Harmonic Canon and Bass Marimba), Tekla Cunningham (baroque violin and baroque viola), Frequency Ensemble, Manuel Guillén (violin), Yura Lee (violin), Tawnya Popoff (viola), Carrie Henneman Shaw (voice), Bonnie Whiting (percussion) and Vina Vu Valdés (voice). Her music has been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and can be found on her albums Play/Write: String Masks: 3 Songs for Bellows, Buttons and Keys; Firefly Songs; Schumann Resonances and 26. Watras's adaptation of John Corigliano's Fancy on a Bach Air for viola is published by G. Schirmer, Inc. and can be heard on her Viola Solo album.