Jodi Levitz

Jodi Levitz, Professor of Viola at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, and Artistic Director of Stamps Ensembles, boasts an international reputation as a consummate artist and a passionate advocate of exploring new musical possibilities for the viola. While still a student at The Juilliard School she won first-place at the D'Angelo and Hudson Valley competitions and the position of principal viola soloist with the critically acclaimed Italian chamber group I Solisti Veneti.

She performs as soloist throughout Europe, South America, North America and Asia, and records for the Concerto, Dynamic, Naxos and Erato labels. Her vast chamber music experience runs the gamut from violist of the Chicago String Trio and the Ives Quartet to historically informed recordings of the works of Hummel and Schumann with fortepiano.

A highly acclaimed educator and pedagogue, she was on the faculties of the Ars Musica Academy at Imola , Progetto Orchestra in Vicenza, and co-artistic director of the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival in Courmayeur, Italy. She is a faculty member at the Blackburn Academy at Festival Napa and Valley of the Moon Festival (historical performance). As Professor of Viola and Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 17 years, she served as both Chair of Strings and Chair of Chamber Music.

A recipient of the Sarlo Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, her students have claimed first prize awards from the Walter W. Naumburg and Fischoff chamber music competitions, while many others have been recruited for positions in major orchestras and teaching institutions both in the United States, Canada, and Europe.