• Karl Orvik, violin

    Karl Orvik, violin


    Karl Ørvik, violin and viola, enjoys an active career as both a performer and teacher. He has been featured in solo and chamber recitals throughout the United States, Canada, Norway and South Korea. He is a founding member of Trio Klaritas, who made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018, and also performs as the violinist of Stonehill College’s faculty ensemble, the Stonehill Trio. In addition, he has appeared in performances, recordings and live radio broadcasts as a member of many other chamber ensembles, including the Boston Public Quartet, PresentMusic, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, L’Ensemble Portique, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Ørvik has performed as a concerto soloist with the Bangor, Racine and Green Bay Civic symphonies, and has extensive experience as a concertmaster with numerous orchestras in New England and the Midwest.

    Mr. Ørvik has taught violin and viola in a variety of settings since 1997, and works easily with students of all ages and abilities. In addition to his teaching position at Stonehill College, he is also a member of the string faculty at University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a long-time teacher at the Community Music Center of Boston, where he was the recipient of the 2017 Marilla MacDill Prize for Teaching Excellence. He has been an Adjunct Instructor of violin at both Wisconsin Lutheran College and Alverno College, and has previously held positions as Director of the Milwaukee Center for Strings and Interim Director of the Dedham School of Music. He particularly enjoys coaching chamber and orchestral ensembles, and has served as faculty and guest artist at many summer music festivals, including Point Counterpoint in Vermont, the Swannanoah Chamber Music Workshop in North Carolina, and both the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Alaska. In addition, he has conducted and coached several youth symphonies and string ensembles in Boston, Milwaukee and Green Bay. In demand as an adjudicator and clinician, Mr. Ørvik has been published in the ASTA Journal, and in 2014 he completed New Scale Method, an innovative scale book for advanced violinists.

    A native of Canada, Mr. Ørvik began violin lessons at age eight with Philip Frank in Toronto, and later studied with Eduard Minevich in London, Ontario, and Stephen Kecskemethy in Portland, Maine. He has studied chamber music with members of the Muir, Manhattan, Cleveland and Cavani string quartets, and was awarded a fellowship to study with the Fine Arts Quartet at the Sorkin International Institute of Chamber Music in Milwaukee. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Lawrence University, studying with Calvin Wiersma, and his Master’s Degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where his principal teacher was Stephen Majeske. In January of 2012, Mr. Ørvik received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in violin performance from Boston University, where he was a student of renowned violinist and pedagogue Roman Totenberg.