The Blair School of Music has appointed Stephen Miahky as associate professor of violin and the new first violin of the Blair String Quartet, Blair School Dean Mark Wait announced today.
“Steve Miahky is a consummate artist,” said Wait. “When he came to Vanderbilt to interview, he taught a master class of penetrating insight, gave a stylistically diverse solo recital that included one of the finest performances of a contemporary work I’ve ever heard, and demonstrated assured leadership in working with the other members of the Blair String Quartet.
“He will quickly put his own stamp on the artistry of the Blair School of Music. We are all thrilled that he has accepted this position, and I look forward to working with him in the exciting years ahead.”
Miahky currently serves on the faculty of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, after previous faculty appointments at Ohio University and Cornell University. He has been on the faculty of the Montecito Music Festival in Santa Barbara, Calif., since 2011, and received his D.M.A. from Rutgers University in 2009.
Miahky is acclaimed for his performances as a recitalist and a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His most recent engagements include performances at New York City’s Symphony Space, Merkin Concert Hall, and Bargemusic, Atlanta’s ProMozart Society, the Princeton Chamber Music Society, the Southwest Virginia Festival of the Arts, Vancouver’s Sonic Boom Festival, the American Academies in Rome and Berlin, the Netherlands’ De Lakenhal, NPR’s Performance Today, and for the Dalai Lama.
As a chamber musician, Miahky has performed at Monadnock Music, the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Chamber Music Ann Arbor, with the Michigan Chamber Players, the Bryant Park Quartet, the iO Quartet, and with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. He has performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Nicholas Eanet, Martin Beaver, Norman Fischer, Steven Doane, and members of the Arianna, Chester, Concord, Tokyo, and Los Angeles Piano Quartets. Miahky is currently a member of Brave New Works and a rotating concertmaster with the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis. He has also served as guest concertmaster of the Columbus ProMusica, the Illinois Symphony, and the Kansas City Symphony.
Miahky has been a soloist with the Ohio University Symphony Orchestra, Cornell Symphony Orchestra, the Cornell Chamber Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony, the Brave New Works Ensemble, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the IRIS Orchestra, and the University of Michigan Philharmonia.
A champion of contemporary music, Miahky has recorded a number of new works, including world-premiere recordings on such prestigious labels as Naxos Records, Albany Records and AMP Records.
Miahky is an in-demand instructor who, in addition to his faculty appointments, has conducted master classes at the University of Texas-Austin, NYU, Ithaca College, Utah State University, and Tufts University, as well as throughout Korea.