Stephen Miahky
Programs
College Orchestral Institute
High School Orchestral Institute
Praised for his “sweet, luxurious” sound (Fanfare) and the "thoughtfulness and seriousness" (Nashville Scene) of his interpretations, violinist Stephen Miahky holds the Joseph Joachim Chair and is First Violin of the Blair String Quartet at Vanderbilt University. He has garnered acclaim for his performances as a recitalist and a chamber musician throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia in concert halls and music festivals. His most recent engagements include performances New York City's Symphony Space, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic, Atlanta's ProMozart Society, the Princeton Chamber Music Society, the Southwest Virginia Festival of the Arts, Vancouver's Sonic Boom Festival, the American Academies in Rome and Berlin, the Netherlands' De Lakenhal, NPR's Performance Today, and for the Dalai Lama.
As a chamber musician, Miahky has performed at Monadnock Music, the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Chamber Music Ann Arbor, with the Michigan Chamber Players, the Bryant Park Quartet, and the iO Quartet. He has performed with such distinguished musicians as Lynn Harrell, Joseph Silverstein, Glenn Dicterow, Cho-Liang Lin, Nicholas Eanet, Martin Beaver, Norman Fischer, Steven Doane, members of the Arianna, Chester, Concord, Tokyo, and Los Angeles Piano Quartets, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Miahky is currently a member of Brave New Works, and a rotating concertmaster with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis, Tennessee. He has also served as guest concertmaster of the Columbus ProMusica Chamber Orchestra, the Illinois Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston.
In addition to the standard repertoire, Miahky is a noted performer and interpreter of contemporary music. Having performed with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Brave New Works, Alarm Will Sound, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Miahky has worked closely with composers William Bolcom, Steven Stucky, Fred Lerdahl, Christopher Rouse, Kevin Puts, Jonathan Leshnoff, Sydney Hodkinson, Marcos Balter, Sean Shepherd, Yotam Haber, Mario Diaz de Leon, Leslie Bassett, Gabriela Lena Frank, Marilyn Shrude, Felipe Lara, and Helmut Lachenmann. He can be heard on the AMP, New Dynamic, Edition Modern, Albany, MSR and Naxos record labels, and his performances have been rebroadcast across the country on national and regional public radio affiliates.
A native of Akron, Ohio, Miahky received his D.M.A. from Rutgers University, where he received the Bettenbender Award for outstanding artistic achievement. He received his B.M. and M.M. from the University of Michigan and remains the university's only two-time winner of the Earl V. Moore Award for outstanding achievement. Miahky studied chamber music with Andrew Jennings, Martin Katz, and members of the Cleveland, Juilliard, American and Tokyo String Quartets, and received additional training at the Aspen Music Festival, the Meadowmount School, the Perlman Music Program, Canada's National Arts Centre, and the Blossom Festival. His major teachers include Arnold Steinhardt, Paul Kantor, and Alan Bodman. He has served on the faculty of the Point Counterpoint Chamber Music Camp, Cornell University, Ohio University, Bowling Green State University, and has given master classes throughout North America, South America, and Asia.
At Vanderbilt, Miahky teaches violin, chamber music, and directs the Adult Chamber Music Institute. His students have gone on to attend the most prestigious conservatories and music festivals, and can be found as performers and teachers around the country. In addition to Brevard. Miahky spends his summers at the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in eastern Washington and ENCORE Chamber Music in Ohio.