Artistic Director Jonathan Bagg has been part of Monadnock Music since 1983. He is based at Duke University, where he is Professor of the Practice of Music and violist of the Ciompi String Quartet. His career with the Ciompi spans 25 years and includes hundreds of concerts across the U.S. and in Europe, China, Israel, and South America, as well as many recordings. As a solo violist he has an interest in bringing new and unfamiliar works to life, including many new pieces written for him. The Washington Post has noted his “total confidence, rock-solid technique and a deep sensitivity,” while American Record Guide recognizes a violist “who approaches the music with intelligence, passion, and clarity.”

Solo recitals have brought him to the Phillips Gallery in Washington DC, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and many other locations along the East Coast; concerto appearances include the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and the Monadnock Music Orchestra. In addition to Monadnock Music, he has appeared at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Highlands Chamber Music Festival, Mohawk Trail Concerts and the Castle Hill festival. He has collaborated with many notable musicians: pianists Menahem Pressler, and James Tocco, cellist Ronald Leonard, the Tokyo Quartet, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon are just a few. Bagg’s two solo CDs are of music for viola and piano by Robert and Clara Schumann and by Robert Fuchs (1847-1927), on Centaur Records; contemporary solo works by Arthur Levering, Malcolm Peyton, Robert Ward, and Donald Wheelock are on Bridge, Centaur and Gasparo.

Bagg directs the chamber music program and teaches viola at Duke, where he has been Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music. Before moving to Duke he performed with many prominent musical groups in New England, appearing often with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and serving as principal viola for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra. He graduated with honors from both Yale University (BA) and the New England Conservatory (MM), where he studied with Steven Ansell and Walter Trampler.