Violist Nadia Sirota’s varied career spans solo performances, chamber music, and broadcasting. In addition to performing with acclaimed orchestras around the world and releasing four albums of commissioned music, Sirota’s Peabody Award-winning podcast profiles some of the most interesting musical thinkers living today.
Name: Nadia Sirota
Discipline: Music, viola
Class Year: 2000
Current Gig: Soloist, violist in yMusic, host and producer of the Meet the Composer podcast
Best Lesson Learned at BSA: At Baltimore School for the Arts, I learned that authenticity is absolutely the most important, communicative tool you have on stage. When a performer means it, you know it. The faculty and students at BSA breathe this fact day in and day out. Authenticity is so much more vital than technique, as, while technique important, it’s way easier to teach and pick up.
Most awkward BSA moment: I’m sure I had a billion of these. It was high school! But some how my brain’s edited most of that stuff out. I remember BSA for wonderful, inspiring classmates, stimulating classes, and triumphant performances.
Funniest BSA memory: Every day at BSA was full of joy, from impromptu pre-homeroom hymn singing to actors exercising their clown training in science class. I remember nothing so much as a whole schoolful of students who were happy to be in school. I don’t think that happens all too often.
Proudest Moment: I remember our performance of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms kind of changing my life. The whole music department was on stage making this incredible work of art in real time and it just devastated me. I was ruined for any other career! (Thank goodness!)
