MICHAEL LARCO, Assistant Principal Violist of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005, has recently been invited to join the viola section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic where he will begin his tenure in July 2012.

He has collaborated in concert with Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell, Alisa Weilerstein, and Rachel Barton Pine. Recent appearances have included a Chicago “Dame Myra Hess” recital debut, broadcast live on WFMT, with pianist Soojin Ahn, and performances at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society with tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (West Palm Beach), Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Rochester (NY), and the Skaneateles Festival (NY).

He has served as principal violist of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and has performed in the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

An active chamber musician and coach, Larco has been a faculty member at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and at School for Strings (NYC). Most recently, he has coached alongside the Biava String Quartet at the David Einfeldt Chamber Music Seminar at the Hartt School. Larco was a founding member (2000-2005) of the New York City-based Fountain Ensemble.

Larco received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Samuel Rhodes. In 1999 he was awarded the Frank Huntington Beebe Scholarship for studies in Europe. While living in Italy during 1999-2000, he studied both at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, with Thomas Riebl, and in Cremona, Italy, with Bruno Giuranna.