Cultures in Harmony

LILIAN BELKNAP, VIOLA

Lilian Belknap, Viola Lilian Belknap is a violist based in Boston, MA. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 2004 from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey. Her other teachers include Roger Tapping, Karen Ritscher, and Edward Gazouleas. She has participated in numerous festivals, including Aspen Music Festival, Musicorda Chamber Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, ENCORE School for Strings, and the Heifetz International Music Institute. In July of 2007, she traveled to Italy as a member of the Orchestra Geminiani di Follonica, with whom she performed at venues throughout Tuscany. She is currently a faculty member of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (formerly Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, or GBYSO). Lilian is also an alumnus of BYSO; as principal viola of the Senior Orchestra, she participated in two European tours, and was the recipient of the Robert J. Hardt Award for an Outstanding Senior Musician.

Lilian is fascinated by music as a tool for communication and outreach, particularly when combined with other art forms. Her love of theater, visual art, writing and popular music greatly informs her artistic endeavors, and she is constantly searching for new ways to draw connections between mediums. While a student at CIM, she was Music Director and Coordinator for two concerts in collaboration with the Cleveland Institute of Art: Responding in 2002 and Conscious Evolution in 2003. In Boston, she has performed for the Floating Gallery, a visual art outreach organization, as well as with various musicians in non-classical genres, including the Boston-based band, Hallelujah the Hills.