About Violet

Violet is comprised of clarinetist Elizabeth Crawford and violist Katrin Meidell. They met at work and quickly became friends. As musical friends often do, they decided to play a piece together. One of Katrin's favorite composers is Rebecca Clarke, who wrote gorgeous viola music, and Katrin had a copy of Clarke's Prelude, Allegro, and Pastorale that she'd always wanted to play. Libby agreed to play on Katrin's recital, and they performed together for the first time in 2015. They enjoyed playing together so much, they started to look for other pieces they could perform, only to discover that a startlingly small amount of duos for clarinet and viola existed! They contacted Houston-based composer Shawn Head, who agreed to write a piece for them. The Duet for Clarinet in A and Viola was premiered in 2016. Libby and Katrin continued to commission works and now have a catalogue of upwards of 100 new pieces. They are preparing several of these for upcoming performances and recordings.

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Elizabeth Crawford, DM is associate professor of music at Ball State University. A member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for ten years, she currently performs regularly with the Indianapolis Symphony and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. While living in the United Kingdom from 2002-2005, she performed extensively with virtually all of the major orchestras and recorded at Abbey Road and for the BBC.

Elizabeth has performed and given classes throughout the United States, Europe and South Africa and is active with the International Clarinet Association, where she serves as the organization’s Advertising Manager. A proponent of music for E-flat clarinet, she has commissioned solo works for the instrument by Jenni Brandon and Scott McAllister. Her editions of the complete works for E-flat and piano by Giuseppe Cappelli are available from Potenza Music.  In addition, she has edited the complete works by Cappelli for B-flat clarinet and piano, available from BRS Music.

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Katrin Meidell, DMA, has distinguished herself as a violist, teacher, and scholar. She enjoys a prolific and varied performing career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral violist. She has been across the USA, to Canada, Europe, Brazil, and New Zealand for performances, master classes, and presentations. In addition to frequent solo and orchestral engagements, performs with Violet and other chamber groups on a regular basis. A strong proponent of new music for viola, she consistently premieres works commissioned by and written for her. In the orchestral setting, she has performed with the Indianapolis and Fort Worth Symphonies, as well as the Fort Wayne and Boston Philharmonics. In addition to regularly blogging about her musical life, Meidell has been published in the Journal of the American Viola Society, and now serves as a proud Board Member for the organization. She is a Karen Tuttle Coordination pedagogue, with recent master class engagements at Boston University, University of North Texas, and West Virginia University. She teaches viola and chamber music at Ball State University. To learn more, please visit www.katrinmeidell.com.