J. Patrick Rafferty
Violinist J. Patrick Rafferty has been hailed for his “exciting performances,” his “subtle and imaginative ideas about the music,” and “a velvety, sweetly sonorous tone [that] captured the intellect and calmed the soul” (Milwaukee Sentinel). Rafferty's solo credits include concerto performances with the symphony orchestras of Milwaukee, Dallas, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. In addition, he as appeared as soloist with the Dallas Bach Orchestra, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Fine Arts Orchestra (with whom he performed the Texas premiere of Richard Strauss' Violin Concerto), the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Orchestra, and many others, with over 40 works performed.
J. Patrick Rafferty served as Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1991. He previously served as Associate Concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony for eight years, and as Concertmaster for the Dallas Bach and Fine Arts Orchestras. He has also served as acting concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, guest concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony, and as concertmaster of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. He has also held positions with the St. Louis Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony. As recitalist, Rafferty has performed in New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, and many other cities.
An accomplished chamber music performer as well as an acclaimed solo and orchestral artist, violinist J. Patrick Rafferty joined the internationally acclaimed Louisville String Quartet in 2005 as first violinist. He also maintains commitments with the Cadek Trio, whom he joined in 1991. His national reputation as an outstanding chamber musician has been built on his association with such ensembles as the New Marlboro Chamber Players, the American Chamber Trio, the Fine Arts Chamber Players, the Dallas Chamber Orchestra, and the Walden Chamber Players. Of the Cadek Trio’s recent east coast tour, the New York Concert Review wrote “one could pay the Cadeks a high complement by saying that their [playing] compared favorably with that of [the legendary trio of] David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Knushevitzky, and Lev Oborin.”
In 1987, Rafferty founded the Paganini Trio in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then in 1990, formed the Stradivari Trio in the same city. Both ensembles recorded exclusively for the Koss Classics label. Typical of the critical response to these ensembles was the following from the Milwaukee Journal: “a spectacular inaugural season... Word of mouth from ecstatic audiences and favorable reviews from every quarter have filled the place; the trio had to add a performance of each program to get everyone in.”
While maintaining his active performance schedule, Rafferty has successfully built a respected teaching career. One of his specialties is teaching orchestral audition repertoire, drawing on his background as audition winner for 15 major U.S. orchestras. His students have been placed in many major U.S. and European orchestras and in many respected teaching positions. He has taught at the Wisconsin Conservatory, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Alabama, and is now Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Louisville. He is also on the summer artist faculty of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, where he is concertmaster of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.