Erin Rafferty
Erin Rafferty, Principal Viola
Ever since she was in her first opera at age four, Erin Rafferty has loved being involved in music. Whether it’s the children’s chorus in La Boheme or an experimental concert with toy piano in a brewery, she considers herself ready and willing to try anything once. Her musical adventures have taken her to dozens of states and seven countries, performing everywhere from Chicago Symphony Center to Burning Man, from horse farms to prisons.
Always an avid orchestral player, Erin has maintained contracts with many orchestras throughout her career, including currently serving as principal at the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Chicago Philharmonic, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and numerous others. She has previously held principal positions at the Illinois Symphony, Peoria Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Owensboro Symphony, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
But chamber music provides the greatest opportunity for adventure for Erin. She has collaborated with major performers such as Yo-Yo Ma, Jaime Laredo, and Gil Shaham, as well as major living composers such as Frederic Rzewski and Joan Tower. She has been in residence with the Griffon String Quartet (Green Bay, WI) and ATLYS String Quartet (Chicago, IL), with whom she recently premiered a collaboration with DJ Seven Lions at Red Rocks Amphitheater. At Miami’s Love Burn, she once performed violin/viola duets from the roof of an RV, and often performs at the Freakeasy and ArtHaus camps at various burns. In Chicago, she is a member of the Bloom String Quartet, whose recent work includes recording and premiering a string quartet by composer and multi-instrumentalist J.G. Shadid.
Erin earned her Bachelor of Music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and her Master of Music degree from Indiana University. Her major teachers include Li-Kuo Chang, Roberto Diaz, Atar Arad, Catharine Carroll, Masao Kawasaki. She owes her early passion for music to her father, violinist J. Patrick Rafferty, and her late grandfather, conductor Henry Janiec.
She plays a viola by Franz Kinberg, crafted in 1957 in Chicago, and a bow by E.F. Ouchard