Heidi Castleman
Professor of Viola, Juilliard School of Music

Currently Professor of Viola at the Juilliard School of Music, Heidi Castleman has taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, SUNY Purchase, Rice University and Philadelphia Musical Academy.

A member of the New York String Sextet (1972-1976), Ms. Castleman also has been guest artist with many ensembles, including the Cleveland, Audubon, Lydian and Cavani Quartets. Recent master class and lecture-demonstrations include those at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Shanghai Conservtory, Great Mountains Music Festival in South Korea, as well as in Montreal, Chicago, Dallas, Interlochen and Boulder.

Heidi Castleman was co-founder and viola faculty of the Quartet Program from 1970 to 1990. During summer months Ms. Castleman has taught and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, Banff Centre and Blossom Music Festival. Since 2001 she has worked with students, ages 12 to 18, at The Perlman Music Program during their six-week Summer Music School on Shelter Island, and since 2005 at the two-week Sarasota Winter Residency @ PMP in Sarasota, Florida, co-sponsored by the Van Wezel Foundation. Ms. Castleman also teaches at a one week intensive viola workshop, the North American Viola Institute, held in June at the Orford Arts Centre.

A founding trustee of Chamber Music America, and its President from 1983 to 1987, Ms. Castleman has also served on the Board of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), Advisory Board of the Fischoff Competition, and currently is Vice President of the Board of the Perlman Music Program. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the ASTA Ohio “Teacher of the Year” award (1994), the Chamber Music America Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award (2001) and the national Artist-Teacher of the Year Award by ASTA with NSOA in 2002. In 2004 Ms. Castleman received the Maurice W. Riley Viola Award at the American Viola Society Congress for Distinguished Contributions to the Viola, and in 2006 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate degree from the University of Montreal.

As a panelist and committee member, Ms. Castleman has served the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council of the Arts, The Music Educators National Conference (MENC), American String Teachers Association (ASTA), The National Association of Schools of Music, The Lila Wallace Readers-Digest Fund and The Andrew Mellon Foundation. As a member of the Musicians’ Committee, she also served as a trustee of the Aspen Music Festival.