Lara St. John

THOUSAND OAKS, CA - California Lutheran University will present violinist Lara St. John in concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 4.

The Canadian-born musician will present a free concert in Samuelson Chapel as part of CLU’s Artists and Speakers Series. She will perform with Martin Kennedy on piano.

St. John has been described as a “volcanic violinist with a huge, fabulous tone” by the Los Angeles Times, a “high-powered soloist” by The New York Times and “something of a phenomenon” by The Strad magazine. She has performed as a soloist with major orchestras in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia and has given recitals in major music halls in New York, Boston, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Prague, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, and Beijing. She will come to CLU after presenting three concerts in Spain.

A prolific recording artist, St. John runs her own label, Ancalagon, which she founded in 1999. Her first Ancalagon recording, “Bach: the Six Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo,” was the best-selling double album on iTunes in 2007. Her“Mozart” recording won the 2011 Juno Award for Classical Album of the Year for Soloist with Large Ensemble.

St. John has been featured on the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., CNN’s “Showbiz Today,” NPR’s “All Things Considered” and a Bravo’s “Live At the Rehearsal Hall.” She has appeared in People and U.S. News and World Report and on the cover of Strings magazine.

She began playing the violin when she was 2. She made her first appearance as soloist with an orchestra at 4 and her European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon when she was 10. She toured Spain, France, Portugal and Hungary at ages 12 and 13, entered the Curtis Institute of Music at 13, and spent her first summer at the Marlboro Music chamber music retreat three years later. Her teachers have included Felix Galimir and Joey Corpus.

She performs on the 1779 “Salabue” Guadagnini thanks to an anonymous donor and Heinl & Co. of Toronto.

The chapel is located at 165 Chapel Lane on the Thousand Oaks campus. For more information, call the Music Department at 805-493-3306 or visit callutheran.edu.