Lewis Kaplan

Who is Lewis Kaplan?

Lewis Kaplan is an American violinist. He was born in Passaic, New Jersey. He resides on the Upper West Side in New York City with his wife, Adria. He is a senior professor in violin and chamber music at the Juilliard School and has been on the faculty at Mannes College The New School for Music since 1987, both in New York City.

Lewis Kaplan's chamber and violin students have included Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Pinchas Zukerman, Kyung-Wha Chung, Pamela Frank, Maria Alanen, Artur Kaganovskiy and Cho-Liang Lin.

His students have played with Orchestras such as the Lahti Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. His students have also played in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Wigmore Hall.

He is a founder of the Aeolian Chamber Players and a co-founder of the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He was a juror for the 2007 Sendai International Music Competition. He has also judged other competitions, like the Brussels competition and the Queen Elizabeth competition.

Lewis Kaplan regularly gives well attended lectures on the Bach Chaconne for solo violin, and is considered the world's foremost authority on the piece.