Meet our Musicians: Regi Papa, Associate Concertmaster

Hailed as “an exciting young violinist with brilliant technique and an excellent sense of style” (The Strad Magazine), Greco-Albanian violinist Regi Papa is one of the most sought-after violinists today.

In 2006, Papa made his Carnegie Hall debut, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the New York Senior Concert Orchestra under the baton of David Gilbert. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonic, New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, Greek National Radio Orchestra, Kamerata Orchestra of Athens, Athens City Symphony Orchestra, National State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, Orchestra of Patras, Volos Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Sendai, Kobe City Chamber Orchestra and Oradea Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, collaborating with renown conductors such as Saulius Sondeckis and Christopher Warren-Green.

Papa has won 1st prizes at the 2002 Eurovision Competition, the Greek Ministry of Education’s Pan-Hellenic Competition, the Wieniawski Competition (Kosciusko Foundation, New York City). He has also received prizes in the Young Soloists Competition (Volos), the International “Jeunesses Musicales” Violin Competition (Romania), the Artur Balsam Competition for Duos (New York City), the Hudson Valley Competition for Strings, the Waldo Mayo Competition, and the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Concerto Competition.

Papa has performed in many prestigious concert halls around the world including performances at the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Jordan Hall in Boston, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., Music Center at Strathmore, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Palacio De Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Athens Concert Hall in Greece and venues in Japan such as ACROS Fukuoka Hall, Orchard Hall in Tokyo and Sapporo Concert Hall.

As an avid chamber musician, Papa has performed extensively in various ensembles throughout the United States and Europe. In May 2010, Papa was chosen to participate in the prestigious Carnegie Hall Chamber Workshop as a member of the Amici Piano Quartet, where he worked intensively with Leon Fleischer, Pamela Frank and Yo-Yo Ma. He has also attended the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, where he studied with Ana Chumachenko.

In 2013, Papa joined the Tallis Quartet and was invited to attend Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival, where he collaborated closely with Colin Carr, Laurence Lesser, Paul Neubauer, Ian Swensen and the Danish Quartet. Papa is also a founding member of the Olympus Piano Trio, winner of the 2016 Chamber Music of New England Competition, 2nd prize winner at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and received 2nd prize and the audience prize at the Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition. In 2015, the Olympus Trio had its New York City debut, sponsored by the Onassis and Hellenic-American cultural foundations, to critical acclaim. The trio released their debut album on LP Classics label in 2017.

In 2014, Papa was invited as a guest artist at the Malaga Classica Chamber Music Festival in Spain, where he returned for three consecutive years. He has also been invited to numerous international music festivals such as Chamber Fest in Albania, International Academy of Music in Italy,  collaborating with world renowned musicians such as Dmitry Berlinsky, Alexander Rubin, Philip Setzer, Eugene Drucker and Mihkail Kopelman.

Papa has been invited to lead as a concertmaster for many orchestras such as Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Washington Opera Society, Capital Symphony, Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. He is also active member of critically acclaimed ensembles such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and The Knights in New York City.

A noted pedagogue, he has held residencies at Northern Michigan State University and the Shenandoah University. Papa was a teaching assistant at Stony Brook University and is currently on the faculty of the Chamber Music Institute for Young Musicians in Stamford, CT. Many of his students are prizewinners and have been accepted into the Juilliard School.

Regi Papa studied with Kyung-Wha Chung at the Juilliard School, where he completed his Master of Music degree as a recipient of the Marie and George Vergottis Memorial Scholarship. Prior to that, he studied with Isaac Malkin at the Manhattan School of Music, where he completed his Bachelor or Music. He is the recipient of the prestigious Onassis Foundation scholarship and the Mundo en Armonia Foundation grant. In 2017, Papa received his Doctoral of Music Degree in Violin Performance from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, under the tutelage of Soovin Kim, Phil Setzer and Hagai Shaham.

Papa has recorded for LP Classics, Navona/Naxos and Sony Classical labels.