Pierre Lapointe

Violist Pierre Lapointe is an international touring musician. His playing has been described by The Times as “expressive” and by the New York Classical Review as “particularly outstanding.” The New York Times also depicted his tone as “attractively unsettled.” Known in the world of classical music as the violist of the acclaimed Escher String Quartet, Lapointe co-founded the group in 2005 while studying at the Manhattan School of music.

Lapointe earned a D.M.A. degree from the Manhattan School of Music in 2012 after writing a thesis about the unusual structure of Alexander Zemlinsky’s 2nd string quartet. Almost simultaneously, Lapointe finished a two-year recording project of the complete cycle of quartets written by Zemlinsky for the Naxos label.

As an educator, Lapointe is often invited by universities and music schools to coach chamber music groups and give master classes to viola students. He has taught at Stony Brook University, Manhattan School of Music Precollege and is presently an adjunct associate professor at SMU Meadows School of the Arts.

Lapointe plays on a a Deconet viola previously owned by Boris Kroyt of the Budapest String Quartet and the instrument is on loan to him in memory of Boris and Sonya Kroyt.  He is married to violinist Wu Jie and currently resides in Plano, Texas, with their son Arthur and daughter Isabella.