Eva Cappelletti-Chao
Violin

Also see The Cappelletti-Chao Duo

Violinist Eva Cappelletti Chao performs regularly at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as Concertmaster with the Washington Concert Opera, Washington Chorus, and the Master Chorale. She also performs with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and the National Symphony, and spends summer seasons performing with the Grand Teton Music Festival.

Ms. Cappelletti Chao began playing violin at the age of six in southeast Ohio, and grew up playing bluegrass fiddle alongside her classical training. Her eclectic early training finds expression today in a diverse performance repertoire that ranges from a successful collaboration with violist husband Philippe Chao as The Cappelletti-Chao Duo, to touring with the internationally acclaimed tango group, Quintango. She can also be heard on the jazz CD, “Jazz the Budway” on the Corona record label.

Prior orchestral positions have included Concertmaster and frequent soloist with the Washington Chamber Symphony, Assistant Concertmaster of the Virginia Symphony and Virginia Opera, and 3 years in principal positions with the New World Symphony in Miami. With the New World Symphony, she performed in great concert halls throughout the US, South America, Europe and the Middle East. She has performed as a chamber musician and guest artist with the Wintergreen Music Festival, Eastern Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival, American Sinfonietta (European tour), Garth Newel Chamber Music Center, Utah Festival Opera Company, St. Anthony’s College (Oxford, England), and the Orquesta de la Universidad de La Serena in Chile. She has worked with such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Seiji Ozawa, James Levine, Placido Domingo, Andre Previn, Eduardo Mata, Eiji Oue, and Leonard Slatkin, and chamber artists Michael Tree, and the Coull Quartet in the UK.

A summa cum laude graduate of Ohio University, Ms Cappelletti Chao double majored in Psychology and Music. She earned her MFA in violin performance at Carnegie Mellon University where she was awarded a full scholarship to study with Pittsburgh Symphony Concertmaster Andres Cardenes. She has also worked with Josef Gingold, MaryLou Speaker-Churchill, Joseph Silverstein, Donald Weilerstein, Toby Appel, Roland Vamos and Burton Kaplan, among others.

As a sought after pedagogue, she held the Assistant Concertmaster and faculty position at Eastern Music Festival. She has also been a teacher and coach for the Northern VA Youth Symphony, the Levine School of Music in Washington DC, the Preparatory Department for Carnegie Mellon. Ms. Cappelletti Chao currently maintains her teaching studio at the Episcopal High School in Alexandria, VA.

When not performing, she and her husband Philippe enjoy the chaos of family life with their two young children, Coltin and Annalyn Grace, in the Washington D.C. area.