Esme Allen-Creighton
viola

Canadian violist Esme Allen-Creighton is currently pusuing a Masters degree in Music at the Juilliard school where she completed her Bachelors degree in 2007 with Heidi Castleman and Steven Tenenbom of the Orion Quartet. A winner of Canada's Flora Matheson Goulden String Prize, Esme was also a featured soloist at the 2006 International viola congress in Montreal as a winner of their Canadian music competition. Esme has performed in a variety of music festivals throughout North America and Europe at Banff Chamber Music Program, Orford Arts Center, Domaine Forget, Oberstdorfer Musiksommer (Germany), International Summer Academy Bad LeonFelden (Austria) and this summer at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival where she performed Chamber music concerts with Ani Kavafian, Jesse Levine and Steven Doane. As an orchestral player, Esme toured Japan and Hong Kong with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. Recently, Esme was chosen as principal violist for the Juilliard Orchestra's tour of China. She has performed in masterclasses for many renowned artists including: Kim Kashkashian, Atar Arad, James Dunham, Roberto Diaz and the Tokyo String Quartet.

Esme is an enthousiastic contemporary musician. As part of Juilliard's FOCUS! Festival, her quartet played the North American premiere of Dai Fujikura's "Another Place". This past winter under the baton of Maestro James Levine in the Juilliard orchestra, Esme performed Elliot Carter's Symphonia and Cello Concerto. This summer she premiered composer Andrew Norman's String Trio "Bloom" at the Norfolk chamber music festival. A versatile musician, Esme has also appeared with the bands The Nightshift, Fluency and Vampire Weekend.

Esme is involved in many outreach activities in New York. As a Juilliard Community Service Fellow, she performs in a variety of care facilites, hospitals and community centers throughout the New York city area. As a Juilliard Morse Fellow, she teaches beginner music courses for grades 1 and 3 at PS11, where she also teaches a class of beginner violists. Esme will begin teaching at the Brooklyn College Preparatory Center this fall.