Mark Kaplan

American violinist Mark Kaplan has consistently exhibited the technical and interpretive skills to rival those of almost any violinist of his generation, and he has played at the major concert halls across the globe and with many of the leading conductors, including Tennstedt, Ormandy, Maazel, Dutoit, Rattle, Masur, Salonen, Slatkin, and Zinman. Kaplan's repertory is quite eclectic, too, ranging from Baroque to modern, and from the standards to the little known. That said, his discography contains a good portion of 20th century and contemporary works, with the names Bartók, Berg, and Stravinsky prominent on the list, as well as contemporary composers Luigi Nono, Lewis Spratlan, and Paul Chihara. Kaplan has taught violin for many years, first at UCLA and then at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has also been a member of the chamber groups, the Golub Kaplan Carr Trio and Sequenza. Kaplan has recorded for several labels, including Albany, Bridge, Claves, Intercord, Koch International, and Arabesque Records. His recordings as a member of the Golub Kaplan Carr Trio are also available on Arabesque Records. Mark Kaplan was born in Boston on December 20, 1953. He studied violin at Juilliard with Dorothy DeLay. Kaplan was given the Award of Special Distinction at the 1973 Leventritt Competition. He launched his solo career in the U.S. that same year, but it was his 1975 concert in Cologne, when he replaced Pinchas Zukerman, that propelled him to international notice. Thereafter, Kaplan steadily built a successful career. In 1982 he branched out when, with pianist David Golub and cellist Colin Carr, he formed the Golub Kaplan Carr Trio. The group drew lavish accolades and citations for its concerts and recordings, including the 1995 AFIM Indie award for its Arabesque recording of piano trios by Smetana and Tchaikovsky. Kaplan also remained active in his solo career, regularly appearing at the major concert venues in Europe and the U.S. His 1989 Arabesque recording of Paganini and Wieniawski concertos was highly praised, and he went on to make a string of recordings for Arabesque and other labels. After the death in 2000 of David Golub, Kaplan and Carr formed a new trio in 2001 with pianist Yael Weiss, renaming it Sequenza. In the new century Kaplan has also remained active in his solo career and is still on the faculty at Indiana University. His later recordings include the 2009 Arabesque recording of Bartók: Works for Violin.