Kristin Figard, viola
Kristin Figard received her Masters degree in Viola Performance and her Bachelor’s degree as a double major in Viola Performance and Harpsichord Maintenance and Studies at Northwestern University. She studied Viola and Violin with Almita and Roland Vamos and Harpsichord with Stephen Alltop. A multiple prizewinner in violin, viola and piano she has numerous first prize awards including both the highschool and college divisions of the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation of Chicago, the Holland-America Music Society Competition, the college division of the Chicago Viola Society Competition, and the Samuel and Elinor Thaviu String Scholarship Competition, and the 18th Kingsville International Young Performers Competition. She was also a recipient of the Farwell Award presented by the Musicians Club of Women and the Collins Awards presented by the American Opera Society. Kristin has performed at the Kennedy Center, Chicago Tonight with Phil Ponce broadcast live on Channel 11, Music in the Loft, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series and the “Live from Studio One” Series both broadcast on WFMT as well as several other performances broadcast on WFMT.
Kristin has also performed as a viola soloist with the Peninsula Music Festival, the Highland Park Strings, The Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra, the Skokie Valley Symphony, and the North Suburban Symphony. As a pianist she has performed as soloist with the Ars Viva! Symphony Orchestra, the Evanston Symphony, the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra with whom she also performed on the same concert both the Wieniawski Violin Concerto and the Kabelevsky Piano Concerto at the age of eleven.