Basil Vendryes
Instructor, MM, Viola
TRVH 329 | 303.871.6957
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Biography

Basil Vendryes has been heard frequently as soloist and chamber musician. He is the Principal Violist of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and is a former member of the San Francisco Symphony (1982-95), New York Philharmonic (1984-85) and Rochester Philharmonic (1979-82) orchestras. As violist with the Aurora String Quartet (1986-95) Mr. Vendryes performed extensively, including recitals in New York , London and Tokyo . He currently is on the faculties of the Lamont School of Music of the University of Denver , where he teaches both viola and chamber music, and California Summer Music at Pebbe Beach . Mr Vendryes has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Summer Music West, the Quartet Program and the Raphael Trio Chamber Music Workshop. In Denver he participates in many educational programs that bring music to schools throughout the area.

Basil Vendryes was born in New York in 1961 to West Indian parents, and began his musical training in the public schools at the age of eleven. He received scholarships to the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Sally O'Reilly, Francis Tursi and Heidi Castleman. Mr. Vendryes has won several awards, including prizes in the 1981 American String Teachers Association and 1988 Bruno Giuranna Viola Competitions. Festival appearances include Spoleto, Heidelberg, Marin (CA), Lake Winnepesaukee (NH), Ouray (CO), Brittish Virgin Islands, Easthampton (NY) and the Grand Tetons (WY). He has appeared as soloist with the Colorado, Aurora, Jefferson, Lamont and Biola Symphonies, Evergreen and Artea Chamber Orchestras, Sinfonia San Francisco, the American Chamber Orchestra, the Oakland and Boulder Youth Symphonies and the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble.

Activities in the last few years include master classes in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Reno and San Diego , service on the jury of the Sphinx National Competition ( Ann Arbor , MI ), a performance of the Weber Andante e Rondo Ungarese with the Centennial Philarmonic (CO), and chamber music appearances in Colorado, New Hapshire and Southern California . He has recorded chamber music for the CRI and Naxos labels. He plays on a rare Italian viola made in 1887 by Carlo Cerruti.