Paul Neubauer

Paul Neubauer is an American violist known for expanding the solo repertoire for viola, often premiering or performing new concertos written for the instrument. He appears widely with American orchestras as a soloist. Listeners can expect a rich, dark-toned sound and a champion's advocacy for viola music that is heard far less often than violin or cello concertos.

Neubauer plays with a warm, covered tone that suits the viola's lower, huskier register, often favoring lines that sing rather than showy virtuosity for its own sake. In this program he takes on Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Viola Concerto, a piece that leans on the instrument's ability to sound both intimate and urgent, moving between lyrical stretches and sharper, more rhythmic passages. Expect him to shape long phrases with a singer's sense of breath, letting the orchestra's colors, especially in Turina's sun-drenched Sinfonía sevillana, frame his sound rather than compete with it. Listeners new to the viola repertoire will hear why advocates like Neubauer insist the instrument deserves more solo attention: it can be conversational one moment, plaintive the next.