Elizabeth Prior

An active Bay Area violist, Elizabeth Prior is the principal violist with the Santa Rosa Symphony and is also a season substitute with the San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Opera. She is a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, associate principal with the Marin Symphony, and performs regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Sun Valley Music Festival, and Strobe Oboe Quartet.

Other orchestral positions include the Freiburg Philharmonic (Associate Principal) and the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra. She has toured and worked with Südwestrundfunk Baden-Baden, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra.

A native of South Africa, she was a prizewinner in the International String Competition in Pretoria and made her debut at Carnegie Hall with the Russian Chamber Orchestra. Other engagements include Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Chamber Ensemble Cologne, Grass Valley and Mendocino Summer Festivals, Midsummer Mozart Festival, and “Chamber Music San Francisco.” She performed regular viola recitals for 13 years with Maestro Donald Runnicles on piano. Prior has released a CD, Viola Romance, with pianist Miles Graber.