Equally at home playing Bartok and Broadway, Chicago native Chad Topaz first picked up a viola in 1984, three years after beginning his musical training on violin. Currently a violist (and occasional substitute principal) with the Berkshire Symphony and a regular participant in the Chamber Music Conference East, Chad is a passionate chamber musician whose honors include First Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Harvard University’s Horblitt Prize for Chamber Music. Orchestrally, he has performed with the Boston Philharmonic and the St. Louis Philharmonic, in addition to maintaining an avid freelance presence in Boston at the time of his residence. Interested in connections between the musical and visual arts, Chad has enjoyed performing in museums including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Fogg Museum. In Chad’s other life, he holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Northwestern University and is Professor of Complex Systems at Williams College, adjunct Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Colorado, and co-founder of QSIDE Institute, a social justice research-to-action nonprofit organization. Chad wrote his college application essay on viola jokes.

Click here to view my detailed music resume and see below for some clips of chamber, solo, duet, chamber-orchestral, and section leader symphonic playing.