DSO Adds Award-Winning Principal Viola Chair

Following an international audition process, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has signed Eric Nowlin to its Julie and Ed Levy, Jr. Principal Viola Chair. Nowlin is currently associate principal viola for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and will join the DSO roster at the beginning of the 2016-17 season.
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Following an international audition process, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra has signed Eric Nowlin to its Julie and Ed Levy, Jr. Principal Viola Chair. Nowlin is currently associate principal viola for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and will join the DSO roster at the beginning of the 2016-17 season.

Nowlin is a violist of the Opus Award-winning and Juno-nominated New Orford String Quartet. He served as guest principal viola with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble, and Cleveland’s Citymusic and as substitute viola with the New York Philharmonic.

Nowlin, who studied at The Juilliard School for both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, received second prize in the 2006 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and first prize in the 2003 Irving Klein International String and 2002 Hellam Young Artists competitions. He earned grand prize in the 2001 Naftzger Young Artists Competition and won the Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition.

He grew up in Missouri and Wisconsin before spending his last two years of high school at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Northern Michigan.

Nowlin was selected from among dozens of candidates who came to Detroit from around the world to take the audition.