Principal Viola
CarlaMaria Rodrigues has been Principal Viola of the San Francisco Opera since 1996. Her professional life began as a member of the Minnesota Orchestra where she was appointed Assistant Principal Viola. While serving as the orchestra’s Acting Principal, she was a featured soloist in Strauss’ Don Quixote with Yo Yo Ma and David Zinman. Since her arrival in San Francisco, she has also held the position of Principal Viola with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
From an early age, chamber music activities have taken CarlaMaria throughout the world with such artists as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolph Serkin and Pinchas Zukerman. She has toured extensively to Europe, South America, Isreal and Australia as a member of the Zukerman and Friends’ Ensemble and has been an active participant at numerous Festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Gstaad, IMS Prussia Cove, Aldeburgh, Savannah and Mecklenburg. More recently, she has performed chamber music with Menachem Pressler, Daniel Hope, Lorenza Borrani and the Emerson String Quartet. Earlier this year, she traveled to Italy to work on a recording project of Koechlin's works, while upcoming engagements include chamber music with Anne Sofie von Otter.
CarlaMaria has become a regular guest teacher of the Jerusalem Music Center where she coaches chamber music and orchestral studies to aspiring young musicians from all over Israel. She also devotes much of her time to the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation in Bombay, mentoring teachers and working with children whenever her time permits. More recently she has been invited to coach an orchestral summer program at the University of Indiana.
A native of London, CarlaMaria entered the Yehudi Menuhin School at the age of ten. She initially entered on the violin and was later encouraged to take up the viola in addition to playing the violin. Her various teachers included, Robert Masters, Peter and Margaret Norris, Hans Keller, David Takeno and Nadia Boulanger. Growing up in England she appeared as both soloist and chamber musician in London’s major concert halls and has been heard on the BBC Radio and Television Network.