Scott St. John, violin soloist, lives in London, Canada with his wife Sharon Wei and daughter Julia. Scott was a member of the St. Lawrence String Quartet and faculty member at Stanford University for seven years, from 2006 to 2013. From 1999 to 2006, he was Associate Professor of Violin at University of Toronto, and founded the Felix Galimir Chamber Music Award for U of T students.
Currently Scott coaches chamber music at Western University (Canada), plays chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival (Vermont), and plays concertmaster of the ROCO Chamber Orchestra in Houston. Scott is a partner in the Rebelheart Collective at London’s Aeolian Hall, an innovative chamber orchestra and youth mentorship program connected with the El Sistema movement.
Concert highlights of the past year include a “Canada 150” recital of early Canadian music in Calgary with pianist Katherine Chi, a performance of Peteris Vasks “Distant Light” at Scotia Festival, and many chamber music performances with the Enso Quartet in California.
A recent recording of Mozart’s Symphonia Concertante with his sister Lara St. John won a JUNO Award for Best Recording: Solo with Orchestra. Working with composers has been important throughout his career; Scott has worked with John Adams, Charles Wuorinen and Oswaldo Golijov in the US, and Arsenio Giron, Gary Kulesha, Elizabeth Raum and many others in Canada.
Scott began his violin studies at age three with Richard Lawrence, in London. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied violin with David Cerone, Arnold Steinhardt, and chamber music with Felix Galimir. Current non-musical activities include serving on the boards of the London Organic Food Co-op and Transport Action Ontario. Scott also supports HanVoice, a lobby organization for North Korean refugees in Canada.
