Praised for his “persuasively emphatic and engaging” performances by the Boston Musical Intelligencer, violist John Batchelder is a passionate chamber musician, educator, and arts administrator committed to the transformative power of chamber music. He has appeared as soloist with ensembles including the Hemenway Strings, Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Arlington, Garland Symphony Orchestra, and Worcester Bach Consort. As a member of the award-winning Julius Quartet, he performed at distinguished venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Bargemusic, the Moss Arts Center, Shalin Liu Performance Center, and Bing Concert Hall. During his thirteen years with the quartet, he engaged in meaningful collaborations with renowned artists and performed at festivals around the world, including as a regular performer at the Music from Salem festival. A graduate of Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the John J. Cali School of Music’s Graduate String Quartet in Residence program, John studied with Lila Brown and Honggang Li of the Shanghai Quartet. During the Julius Quartet’s residency at Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts, he served as Assistant Chamber Music Coach. In 2011, he received a Davis Projects for Peace Grant to support music education initiatives for children in the favelas of Natal, Brazil. For fi ve seasons, John served as Executive Director of the Dallas Chamber Music Society, guiding signifi cant growth in both educational programming and development initiatives, including the creation of the VanSickle Family Foundation House Concert Series. He performs on a 1780 viola by Michele Deconet, formerly played by Boris Kroyt of the Budapest String Quartet and loaned to him in memory of Boris and Sonya Kroyt.