Saul Bitran, violin

Saul Bitran, Associate Professor of Violin at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and first violinist of the award-winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano, has received Mexico and Chile’s highest artistic awards, namely the Bellas Artes Medal and the Order of Merit Pablo Neruda. A devoted pedagogue, many of Bitran’s former students populate some of the world’s leading orchestras and hold teaching positions at renowned music education institutions. Bitran was an associate professor of violin at Carnegie Mellon University from 1987 to 2008, and teaches regularly at numerous music festivals, including the Cremona International Music Academy, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Dartington International Summer School, Centre d’Arts Orford, Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende, and many others. The Cuarteto Latinoamericano is one of the world’s foremost string quartets and champions of new  music from Latin America. Founded in 1982, the Cuarteto has toured extensively throughout Europe, North American, South America, Asia, and Australia, as well as premiering over one hundred new works composed for the quartet. Having recorded most of the string quartet repertoire written in Latin America, their albums have won two Latin Grammy Awards and the prestigious Diapason d’Or. Saul made the premiere recording of Paul Desenne’s violin concerto (The Two Seasons of the Caribbean Tropics), with Boston-based Unitas Ensemble, conducted by Lina González-Granados. Bitran’s noted solo appearances have included the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, as well as with prominent conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gerard Schwarz, Eduardo Mata, and Keith Lockhart, among others. Bitran is a graduate of the Samuel Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv, Israel, under the tutelage of Prof. Yair Kless.