Nicholas Cord, Viola
For more than two decades, omnivorous violist Nicholas Cords has been on the front line of a growing constellation of projects as performer, educator, and cultural advocate. As former Co- Artistic Director of Silkroad, violist of Brooklyn Rider, and viola and chamber music faculty member at New England Conservatory, he is deeply committed to music from a broad variety of traditions and epochs, with a particular passion for the cross-section between the long tradition of classical music and the wide range of music being created today.
Nicholas serves currently as violist of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 with the simple belief that radical cross-cultural collaboration leads to a more hopeful world. Nicholas previously served as Silkroad’s Programming Chair, taking an active role presenting the Ensemble on the world’s major musical stages, in museum residencies such as at the American Museum of Natural History and the Freer-Sackler Galleries, and also in educational contexts such as Silkroad’s long-standing residency at Harvard University.
Another key aspect of Nicholas’ busy musical life is as founding member of Brooklyn Rider, an intrepid group which NPR credits with “recreating the 300-year-old form of the string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra.
A committed teacher, Nicholas currently serves on the viola and chamber music faculty of New England Conservatory. Mr. Cords plays on an instrument made for him in 2019 by famed French luthier Patrick Robin. He performs on bows from some of the world’s top modern makers including Charles Espey and Benoit Rolland.